Keep a healthy PC: A routine-maintenance guide followup

I have read “Keep a healthy PC: A routine-maintenance guide” in this weeks newsletter with much interested and I adjusted the recommendations in the tables to my preferences and I have questions on cleaning up Java & Javascripts and then deleting the obsolete update files on an XP machine

Uninstall Java
I uninstalled Java on my friends XP PC from the Control Panel
--- Then I did a search for anything Java and there are many Java folders and files in the Search Results in the Sun folder
--- Is it safe to delete the ones in the Sun folder?

Then there are some Javascripts Folder and files
--- Netscape seems to be associated with a lot of them if not all of them
--- I believe Javascript is different than Java
--- Should I leave the Javascripts folders and files alone?

Remove obsolete update files
I checked the uninstall folder .
--- Some of them are in Blue and some of them are in Black
--- Is it ok to delete all of them regardless of the color?

I thank Dick-Y for his recommendation for me to post those items which I had done in the Windows Secrets Columns forum

The Following User Says Thank You to RetiredGeek For This Useful Post:

I googled information on them to follow up on my question especially since you confirmed that they are entirely different languages.

When someone doesn't need Java or appears they don't need it, I'll uninstall it.
If someone needs Java they'll find out if it's needed. That's what happened to my brother; he plays Pogo games and it became obvious he needed it

For the time being I'll leave Javascripts alone. I haven't found any recommendations to uninstall it

I did a little more research on why are some file fonts in blue and this is what I found

NTFS files in blue are compressed, green are encrypted and those in red can only be accessed by Windowshttp://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...2-2b462006db90
--- There are instructions on how to remove the different colors but I do not want to do that as I prefer the default colors

Then I wanted to know why the blue colored ones are compressed
Blue files are compressed files. They got that way when you ran the disk cleanup utility and choose to compress old or rarely used files http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=534608
--- What that tells me is that it's ok to delete the blue files
--- It also appears to me that it's ok to delete the black font files since they are still obsolete obsolete files in the uninstall folder

You can't uninstall JavaScript as it is built into the browsers you use, IE, FireFox, Chrome. You can disable it via settings or in FF you can use the NoScript extension which I swear by and sometimes at but it does help to keep you safe from some malware. HTH

The Following User Says Thank You to RetiredGeek For This Useful Post:

Older versions of Java did not properly uninstall themselves from Windows. You will probably find a bunch of older versions in Add/Remove Programs on the affected machine. Use Add/Remove Programs to completely remove all versions of Java (including the current one). Reboot at least once after all those removals to normalize the Registry.

Once you are "Java clean" - as far as that standard Add/Remove Programs list is concerned - run the Java Uninstall Tool from the java.com website. This will ferret out any "mortal remains" of old versions of Java - and remove them from your system. Google "uninstall old versions of java" for more info.

Once you have all versions removed as much as possible - go back and check for "Java" folders. If found, whatever is in there now is redundant. Considering what I recommend next, this is a good time to do a complete virus scan and then an image backup. With the image backup in place, delete the Java folders (and their Sun parents once you verify the Sun parents are completely empty). You now have a "Java clean" system in reality - rather than just according to marketing hype.

Note: There are some viruses that "hide" in the Java folder structure. The idea behind deleting those Java folders manually is to "kill" those viruses. However, this can lead to problems where the "revenge" part of a virus tries to disable your system for attempting to "kill" it. This is why an image backup is prudent at this point. If things go sideways as a part of the cleanup process - you can always restore the image backup - now knowing it is infected - and get help for properly removing the virus before you do the "full cleanup" again.

BTW, I've done the "full cleanup" process dozens of times on my own WXP boxes here. It has always worked properly. But then again - I run a full software firewall, malware and antivirus scanner suite on a continuous basis - along with taking regular image backups before doing "surgery" of this type. Paranoia - it's a good thing...

With all the above done - you can now install the latest Java - which is "Version 7 - Update 51" as of the date of this post. Make sure you uncheck the checkbox for the "enhancements" (those extra toolbars, browsers, etc.) - if you don't want them. All newer versions of Java properly uninstall their older versions when updating - so the "mortal remains" problem should no longer be an issue - once you've manually cleaned up from versions earlier than Java 7.

1. Use the Java Uninstall Tool with just the current version of Java up and running. Clean up as much as possible. Reboot to normalize the Registry.

2. Uninstall the latest version of Java using Add/Remove Programs.

3. Check for "Java" folders. Follow the rest of the original post as detailed.

As far as I know, the above modification should perform exactly as the original - with the added necessary step of uninstalling the current version of Java remaining after the uninstall of all previous versions using the Java Uninstall Tool.